Competing for Popularity

GENDER DIFFERENCES

Terry has scambled quickly up the corporate ladder, earning a reputation for being hardworking and ambitious. Outside the office, Terry fights tenaciously for every point on the tennis or basketball court.

Is Terry popular? You might think it depends on Terry's sex: A competitive he-Terry would be considered attractively masculine, while an assertive she-Terry might annoy some folks.

But it turns out that the popularity of competitive people has little to do with their sex. What truly matters is who they are trying to beat.

Competitiveness is really two different things, explain Nadege Morey, M.A., and Gwendolyn Gerber, Ph.D., of John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Goal competitiveness is the desire to do one's best to reach a goal. Here your're competing against yourself. Then there's interpersonal competitiveness, the desire to beat others.

Morey and Gerber find that college students consider goal competitiveness an asset in both sexes. In fact, goal-competitive women are especially respected, perhaps because "it takes more for a woman to be competitive in our society," suggests Morey.

The surprise involves interpersonal competitiveness. According to stereotypes, "real men" are aggressive, ready for a fight, while women are more concerned about others. But students give interpersonal competitiveness a resounding thumbs-down when displayed by either sex.

All this bodes well for competitive women--as long as their competitive spirit remains oriented toward reaching goals, not fighting to outdo others.

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